New Delhi: With Assembly Elections in Bihar
approaching fast, Congress president Sonia Gandhi Saturday asked
the party unit to get cracking.
Gandhi gave the direction to PCC chief Mehboob Ali Kaiser,
AICC general secretary in-charge for Bihar Mukul Wasnik and
AICC secretary in-charge Sagar Rayaka when they met her three
days after their appointment.
Seeking to galvanise the party in the poll-bound state,
Gandhi had on June 2 removed PCC chief Anil Sharma and AICC
in-charge Jagdish Tytler and brought in a Muslim face as the
new party chief. Wasnik, who is Union Minister for Social
Justice and Empowerment, is a Dalit.
The Bihar unit of Congress had been witnessing internal
feud with Sharma and Tytler at loggerheads and a number of
controversies dogging the organisation.
"We have been directed to get down to work as time is
short," Kaiser said when asked what Gandhi told them at the
meeting.
The dates for the Bihar Assembly elections are likely to
be announced around October this year.
Kaiser said he has been assured of support from all
sections.
On the party`s strategy in the state, where Congress has
been out of power for around two decades, Rayaka said a number
of young leaders would be given tickets as youths are
motivated after AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi`s visit to
the state.
Women will also be given priority in ticket distribution,
Rayaka said.
A section of party leaders wanted that Lok Sabha Speaker
Meira Kumar, a prominent Dalit face, be made either PCC chief
or projected as the chief ministerial candidate.
Congress has announced that it will go alone in the state
after it ended the alliance with RJD headed by Lalu Prasad.
PTI
